Learn how Juniata College's President took a community emphasis from his Inauguration week and manifested long-term success by inspiring campus members to contribute to dialogues through social media.

1. On
Monday,
October
6,
2014,
CUPRAP
hosted
its
fall
west
workshop
at
the
Regional
Learning
Alliance
in
Cranberry,
Pa.
There,
Juniata
Vice
President
of
MarkeHng
and
Advancement
Gabriel
Welsch
presented
on
our
College’s
recent
presidenHal
inauguraHon,
which
emphasized
Juniata’s
chief
brand
value:
community.
He
also
described
how
he,
other
members
of
the
InauguraHon
commiRee,
and
the
enHre
community
were
encouraged
to
engage
in
a
moment
(several
throughout
inaugural
week
actually)
of
arHculaHng
Juniata’s
best
qualiHes
and
forming
its
new
beginning.
1

2. Just
as
a
short
reiteraHon:
Juniata
is
a
liberal
arts
college
that
recruits
students
from
across
the
U.S.
and
around
the
world.
Our
yearly
enrollment
averages
1,600.
Time
and
again,
our
consHtuents
say
that
our
caring
campus
community
which
stresses
hands-­‐on
experience
and
academic
flexibility
is
our
greatest
asset.
Juniata’s
central
brand
values
are
community,
experience,
and
flexibility.
2

3. I’m
here
to
talk
about
the
social
media
efforts
of
Juniata’s
new
President,
James
A.
Troha,
but
let
me
start
with
our
previous
president,
Tom
Kepple.
A
serious
man
who
inspired
our
College
to
stress
outcomes
in
our
markeHng
efforts,
Tom
was
responsible
for
bringing
more
recogniHon
to
our
small
community.
He
was
also
a
very
good
sport.
Here
you
see
him
and
Mrs.
Kepple
in
Juniata’s
holiday
video
for
2011,
a
take
off
of
A
Christmas
Story.
President
Kepple
indulged
our
humorous
markeHng
tendencies
in
other
instances
as
well.
A
well-­‐liked
leader,
President
Kepple
was
popular
on
social
media
when
we
deployed
content
similar
to
this,
but
had
no
Facebook
or
TwiRer
account
of
his
own
linked
to
his
professional
status
as
College
President.
3

4. Enter
President
Troha.
Shortly
a_er
coming
on
board
at
Juniata
in
June
2013,
President
Troha
approached
Gabe,
John
Wall
(Juniata’s
Director
of
Media
RelaHons),
and
I
about
starHng
his
own
TwiRer
feed.
Like
willing
subjects,
we
grilled
him
about
his
intenHons.
Why
did
he
want
to
do
this?
What
was
he
going
to
post
about?
How
o_en?
How
had
he
come
across
this
noHon?
In
short,
had
he
done
his
homework
in
researching
this
idea?
Our
intenHon
in
asking
these
quesHons
was
not
to
squelch
his
enthusiasm,
but
to
let
him
know
something
that
we
let
every
social
media
manager
on
our
campus
know:
as
a
markeHng
department
office,
we
are
here
to
help
you,
but
that
is
best
done
when
we
equip
you
to
become
a
content
creator
for
yourself
and/or
your
department.
(We’ll
revisit
that
in
a
liRle
bit)
but,
unHl
then,
let
me
share
President
Troha’s
iniHal
TwiRer
Strategy.
He
set
out,
simply,
to
chronicle
his
first
year
in
the
Juniata
Presidency.
From
meeHng
with
alumni
and
current
students,
to
describing
his
family
and
personal
hobbies
(he’s
a
huge
Cleveland
sports
fan),
he
suggested
a
robust
collecHon
of
content.
He
had
also
found
four
tweeHng
presidents
and
mined
their
feeds
for
content
ideas.
We
were
impressed
with
this,
and
decided
to
indulge
him.
4

5. We
began
the
process
of
launching
President’s
TwiRer
by
providing
him
with
a
handle,
a
bio,
a
profile
picture,
background/banner
picture,
and
some
basic
training.
We
also
followed
some
key
consHtuents
for
him:
any
tweeHng
trustees
(there
were
three),
followers
of
@juniatacollege
who
were
very
interacHve
with
us,
those
four
tweeHng
presidents
he
discovered,
as
well
as
@chronicle
and
@inside
higher
ed.
If
the
screenshot
to
the
right
doesn’t
look
like
our
best
work,
that’s
because
it
isn’t.
Promptly
a_er
we
set
him
up
with
a
carefully
constructed
candid
image,
a
bio
with
plenty
of
buzz
words,
and
a
banner
image
with
a
hi-­‐res
aerial
of
campus,
we
quickly
found
that
President
Troha
changed
everything
about
his
profile.
Note
the
blurry
profile
picture,
the
colorless
aerial
taken
from
a
hiking
trail
near
campus,
the
cringe-­‐
worthy
capitalizaHon
in
President
Troha’s
bio.
It’s
not
what
a
markeHng
department
would’ve
picked.
And
we’re
thrilled
with
that.
From
the
very
start,
President
Troha
had
taken
control
of
his
TwiRer
presence.
But
he
sHll
needed
some
help.
5

6. Meet
Ally.
At
Juniata,
we
encourage
students
to
have
a
voice
in
our
markeHng.
One
way
in
which
we
achieve
this
is
to
allow
our
students
to
run
our
social
media
feeds.
From
Facebook
and
TwiRer
to
Instagram
and
Pinterest,
Juniata
students
post
as
their
college.
We
are
fortunate
to
idenHfy
high-­‐quality
students
to
do
so
through
a
program
we
have
called
Juniata
Associates,
wherein
students
who
have
proven
their
responsibility
through
prior
employment
or
leadership,
are
paid
a
higher
rate
to
do
student
jobs
with
great
responsibility.
Ally
Lush,
a
2014
graduate,
was
running
Juniata’s
social
channels
when
President
Troha
approached
with
with
his
tweeHng
plan
and
I
quickly
put
Ally
to
work
training
Troha.
What
we
learned
through
this
process
is
that
most
presidents
will
come
to
you
with
a
sophis3cated
no3on
of
the
social
channel
they
intend
to
inhabit,
but
they
will
understand
virtually
nothing
about
how
to
post
a
tweet.
Thus,
Ally
spent
some
Hme
sijng
with
President,
explaining
retweets,
modified
tweets,
hashtags,
and
handles.
6

7. On
Sepetember
4,
2013,
just
a
liRle
more
than
a
month
before
his
inauguraHon,
President
Troha
sent
his
first
tweet.
Ally
and
I
instructed
him:
use
at
least
one
handle
and
one
hashtag.
We
think
he
did
preRy
well,
though
there’s
certainly
nothing
earth-­‐
shaking
here.
7

8. A_er
three
months,
President
Troha
proved
himself
a
prolific
tweeter.
This
is
a
spread
from
the
Juniata
magazine
showing
many
of
his
tweets.
8

9. There
have
been
historic
tweets,
9

10. And
boring
tweets.
10

11. Tweets
whose
imagery
and
text
contradict
one
another.
11

12. And
funny
tweets.
12

13. This
tweet
shows
student
book
bags
sijng,
untended,
outside
of
our
dining
hall—at
Juniata
the
idea
that
no
one
steals
from
another’s
backpack
shows
the
strength
of
our
integrity,
which
can
be
felt
throughout
our
enHre
community.
So,
good
or
bad,
Troha’s
tweets
that
have
reached
the
greatest
amount
of
people
-­‐-­‐
those
that
are
RTed
and
favorited
widely
–
show
something
we
really
value:
community.
13

14. They
show
experience
and
outcomes.
14

15. And
they
exemplify
a
third
brand
value:
flexibility.
Together,
all
of
these
tweets
—
and
there
are
500
more
—
show
a
President
invested
in
his
community,
accessible
to
his
consHtuents,
and
deploying
our
brand
in
new
ways.
15

16. At
the
last
spring
CUPRAP
conference
various
speakers
talked
about
inspiring
and
curaHng
“user-­‐generated
content”
via
social
channels.
To
that
we
say,
“Hail
to
our
Chief.”
On
all
campuses,
the
President
sets
the
tone.
Our
leader
has
set
his
as
good
humored
and
outgoing
through
the
very
events
of
his
InauguraHon
and,
to
today,
through
his
social
media
posts.
He
inspires
others
to
contribute
to
community
conversaHons
as
he
has
and
will
conHnue
to:
in
person
and
online.
Take
a
step
back
with
me
for
a
moment
and
look
at
President
Troha’s
Tweets
through
another
lens:
that
of
his
audiences.
He
uses
twiRer
to
engage
with
current
students,
16

17. Alumni
and
investors,
(this
tweet
was
posted
at
the
very
end
of
Inaugural
week
–
hence
the
#nicecoincidence
hashtag)
17

18. And
even
others
in
higher
ed.
This
is
President
Troha’s
#ALSicebucketchallenge.
Let
me
point
out
two
things
about
it:
because
he’s
social
media
savvy,
President
Troha
caught
the
#ALS
craze
before
it
became
cliché.
And,
he
used
it
to
engage
others
outside
our
community,
nominaHng
Susquehanna
President
Jay
Lemmons.
When
Susquehanna
responded
with
their
video,
tagging
us,
they
inadvertantly
sold
us
to
their
prospecHve
students
as
well.
Thanks,
Susquehanna!
18

19. There
have
also
been
various
media
relaHons
benefits
to
having
a
social-­‐savvy
president.
In
this
Inside
Higher
Ed
arHcle,
President
Troha
writes
about
how
to
handle
the
personal
challenges
of
applying
for
and
transiHoning
to
a
new
presidency
in
a
tone
and
with
messages
that
are
not
dissimilar
to
the
voice
and
content
of
his
TwiRer
feed.
AddiHonally,
local
press
has
found
Troha
accessible.
Though
we
have
an
old
school
newspaper
with
a
strict
paywall/subscripHon
blockade,
its
reporters
are
on
TwiRer
(like
most
journalists)
and
have
covered
Troha’s
campus-­‐community
dialogue
invitaHons
to
local
leaders
through
the
paper
and
by
RT-­‐ing
his
messages.
19

20. Not
only
did
Troha
branch
out
through
media,
he
got
a
handle
on
other
social
media
as
well.
In
addiHon
to
the
TwiRer
feed
we’ve
been
examining,
he
learned
to
use
Facebook
and
cross-­‐plauorm
tools
as
well.
On
the
le_,
he
snaps
a
photo
for
his
Facebook
page
during
HunHngdon
Community
Leaders
Luncheon,
when
the
College
hosted
local
leaders.
On
the
right,
Troha
shares
a
student
tweet
to
his
Facebook
page
via
Flipboard.
We
were
impressed
at
his
willingness
to
branch
out
–
he
asked
for
no
assistance
in
these
efforts!
20

21. And
then
he
did
something
I
did
not
expect.
He
tweeted
back
@JuniataProblems.
I’ll
be
honest.
I
held
my
breath,
wondering
if
he’d
opened
the
floodgates
for
complaints.
21

22. But
the
students
liked
knowing
that
he
cared.
When
I
interviewed
students
about
this,
they
pointed
out
that
the
President’s
TwiRer
feed
allows
them
to
have
a
conversaHon
with
a
specific
person
(not
a
faceless
insHtuHonal
page)
–
online
and
off
line.
I
asked
my
current
social
media
student
leader
what
she
thought
of
President
Troha’s
tweet
to
@JuniataProblems.
(Read
quote
above.)
Remember
when
I
said
we
wanted
him
owning
his
TwiRer
feed?
TJ’s
quote
shows
that
the
authenHcity
of
having
Troha
tweet
on
his
own
was
a
wise
choice.
Also,
while
he’s
been
busy
tweeHng,
we’ve
been
busy!
22

23. In
addiHon
to
deploying
Troha’s
social
anHcs
(carefully
and
occasionally
so
that
his
feed
can
stand
on
its
own)
and
covering
other
campus
events,
my
social
media
students
were
starHng
to
see
that
their
post
views
rose
if
they
embedded
Troha
somehow
in
a
post.
Here
he
is
in
a
post
that
promotes
Juniata’s
tradiHon,
Storming
of
the
Arch.
In
this
tradiHon,
freshman
charge
toward
an
architectural
arch
on
campus
which
is
defended
by
upperclassmen
and
rugby
players.
No
one
has
ever
made
it
through—though
each
year
freshman
try.
The
post
above
seeks
to
promote
the
2014
Storming
event
(with
an
image
of
President
Troha
parHcipaHng
in
2013).
The
number
of
likes,
shares,
and
overall
views
were
more
than
double
what
they
had
been
in
the
past,
when
President
Troha
was
not
pictured.
I
cauHoned
my
students
to
not
overuse
President
Troha,
as
his
feed
needs
to
have
its
own
messages
so
people
will
go
check
it
out
(rather
than
just
browsing
our
feeds).
AddiHonally,
we
don’t
want
people
to
Hre
of
him
and
wrongly
assume
that
our
President
only
has
fun.
23

24. Let’s
look
at
another
example.
Every
fall,
Juniata
cancels
classes
early
one
morning
and
the
enHre
community
heads
to
a
nearby
park
for
a
picnic
(featuring
tug-­‐of-­‐war).
The
above
post
on
our
Facebook
page
is
a
poster
that
alumni
can
print
out
to
hang
at
their
offices
or
homes
on
the
day
of
Mountain
Day.
This
announcement
(early
in
the
morning
–
and
a
total
surprise)
always
garners
many
likes,
comments,
and
shares.
24

25. The
post
I
just
showed
you
–
the
Mountain
Day
announcement,
got
15,600
views
according
to
Juniata’s
Facebook
Insights
on
that
day.
But,
if
you
look
at
the
second-­‐
most
viewed
item
that
day,
you’ll
see
that
that
post,
which
garnered
more
than
10,000
views,
included
President
Troha.
25

26. This
10,000+
views
post
was
actually
generated
by
a
student
—
who
does
not
work
for
our
department
–
on
her
phone.
She
posted
it
to
Instagram
and
posted
@instajuniatacollege
(our
handle
on
Instagram).
We
reposted
this
great
user-­‐
generated
content
to
our
Facebook,
TwiRer,
and
Instagram
feeds
with
credit
to
Eliot
(the
student).
In
this
post
you
can
see
what
we’ve
learned
throughout
the
last
year
(since
President’
Troha’s
InaguraHon):
that
Troha’s
in-­‐person,
off-­‐line
parHcipaHon
as
well
as
online
posts
inspires
online
community
building
at
Juniata—online
and
off.
26

27. We
can
(somewhat)
see
this
conclusion
in
our
social
analyHcs.
Facebook
defines
reach
as
the
number
of
people
who
see
a
post
from
its
original
posHng
and
those
who
see
the
post
as
a
result
of
their
friends
sharing
it,
liking
it,
or
commenHng
on
it.
In
the
year
before
Troha
arrived,
the
2012-­‐13
academic
year,
depicted
at
the
top
of
the
screen,
Juniata’s
posts
with
the
greatest
reach
topped
out
at
5,000
views.
In
Troha’s
first
year,
the
2013-­‐14
AY
as
seen
below,
the
top
post
garnered
9,000
views
and
five
posts
had
more
than
5,000
views.
27

28. The
number
of
people
who
liked,
commented
on,
and/or
shared
posts
also
increased
from
~250
during
the
2012-­‐13
academic
year
(above)
to
~300
during
2013-­‐14
academic
year,
Troha’s
first,
(below).
Although
not
all
of
this
is
not
due
to
to
President
Troha—many
other
factors
also
enhanced
our
social
presence—President
Troha’s
leadership
in
crea3ng
and
sharing
content
has
fostered
an
abundance
of
community
par3cipa3on
in
dialogues
at
Juniata.
28

29. Have
quesHons?
Send
me
an
email
at
kasung@juniata.edu
or
tweet
at
me
(@gennawk).
Hope
to
chat
soon!
29